Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion who became a fierce critic of
Russia's President Vladimir Putin, has become the latest public figure to
flee the country claiming he fears prosecution.

Mr Kasparov, 50, who was previously a leader of The Other Russia and Solidarity opposition movements, told a press conference in Geneva he was afraid of his freedom being curtailed if he returned to his home country.

"I kept travelling back and forth until late February where it became clear I might be part of this ongoing investigation of the activities of the political protesters and right now I have serious doubts that if I return to Moscow I may be able to travel back," he said on Wednesday. "So for the time being I refrain from returning to Russia."

A series of opposition activists and street protesters has gone on trial in Russia on what they claim are fabricated or exaggerated charges since Mr Putin returned to the Kremlin in May last year.

Earlier this week, Sergei Guriyev, a prominent liberal economist, said he would not return to Moscow after going on holiday to Paris. He was being investigated in Moscow over his contribution to a report that concluded the jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was innocent.

Pavel Durov, the head of Russian social network VK, has not appeared in public since a disputed incident in April in which he allegedly struck a policeman while driving. There has been speculation that he moved abroad to avoid Kremlin pressure for refusing to block opposition groups' pages on VK.

On Thursday, Mr Kasparov - who has recently been in the United States and Western Europe - clarified his comments in a post of Facebook.

"Russia is and will always be my country," he wrote. "I am still travelling on a Russian passport... I refuse to allow Putin and his gang define Russia. They are a temporary disease that the Russian immune system will soon fight off. I am doing everything I can to help win that fight."

The former chess grandmaster, who was undisputed world champion from 1985 to 1993, said that he had dedicated his life to "human rights activities and education programmes" but that it was "impossible to imagine I would be allowed to continue this work inside Russia today".

Mr Putin has denied that dissenting Russians are being targeted for prosecution.